Police aim to catch Allston pimps using world wide web
Hannah McBride
Issue date: 4/29/08 Section: News
Boston police said they turn to their computers to seek out and shut down illegal massage parlors and prostitution houses in Allston-Brighton, where a john is more likely to look for a trick on Craigslist than a corner.
Despite the new tool for setting up stings, police said they are no closer to identifying possible human trafficking victims in the area than they were three years ago, though 50 illegal operations have been shuttered since.
Boston Police Department District D-14 officers monitor Craigslist.org, a free classified ads site, for leads on unlicensed massage parlors and "erotic services" to determine whether prostitution rings run in Allston qualify as sex slavery.
According to D-14 crime logs, officers have arrested more than 100 individuals involved in illegal massage and prostitution houses through the program, begun in April 2005. Records show six prostitution and illegal massage parlor stings since Jan. 28 resulting in 10 arrests, one of which targeted a transsexual male.
Sgt. James Fong, a BPD detective, said Allston-Brighton differs from other neighborhoods because most prostitution advertisements take place inside apartments, houses and hotels -- not on the streets.
In their first sweep, officers arrested three women, one of whom had been labeled the "Queen of Craigslist." Fong said they have arrested woman as young as 15 and old as 63, with demographics as varied as college students, mothers, even a limo company owner who "did this on the side."
"Some of the advertisers are getting smart and use locations [in or] near Brookline, Newton, Cambridge and surrounding communities instead of Allston or Brighton, due to all of the arrests being made," Fong said in an email.
Most East Coast Asian masseuses come from or have ties to Flushing, N.Y., Fong said. They do not exclusively target Craigslist advertisers, and he said in one case, officers arrested a female prostitute who had 12 cell phones, nine of which were listed in individual advertisements in the Boston Phoenix adult classifieds.
Despite the new tool for setting up stings, police said they are no closer to identifying possible human trafficking victims in the area than they were three years ago, though 50 illegal operations have been shuttered since.
Boston Police Department District D-14 officers monitor Craigslist.org, a free classified ads site, for leads on unlicensed massage parlors and "erotic services" to determine whether prostitution rings run in Allston qualify as sex slavery.
According to D-14 crime logs, officers have arrested more than 100 individuals involved in illegal massage and prostitution houses through the program, begun in April 2005. Records show six prostitution and illegal massage parlor stings since Jan. 28 resulting in 10 arrests, one of which targeted a transsexual male.
Sgt. James Fong, a BPD detective, said Allston-Brighton differs from other neighborhoods because most prostitution advertisements take place inside apartments, houses and hotels -- not on the streets.
In their first sweep, officers arrested three women, one of whom had been labeled the "Queen of Craigslist." Fong said they have arrested woman as young as 15 and old as 63, with demographics as varied as college students, mothers, even a limo company owner who "did this on the side."
"Some of the advertisers are getting smart and use locations [in or] near Brookline, Newton, Cambridge and surrounding communities instead of Allston or Brighton, due to all of the arrests being made," Fong said in an email.
Most East Coast Asian masseuses come from or have ties to Flushing, N.Y., Fong said. They do not exclusively target Craigslist advertisers, and he said in one case, officers arrested a female prostitute who had 12 cell phones, nine of which were listed in individual advertisements in the Boston Phoenix adult classifieds.
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